XLIB Programming Manual, Rel. 5, Third Edition

Chapter 5. The Graphics Context

The graphics primitives supplied with X are quite simple. Most of the details about how graphics are to be drawn are stored in a resource called a graphics context (GC). GCs are stored in the server, thus reducing the amount of information that needs to be transmitted for each graphics request. This chapter describes how to use GCs and provides details on each member of the XGCValues structure. Everyone should read this chapter.

The X routines that draw graphics are called graphics primitives. They draw dots, lines, text, images, and tile or fill areas, and will be described fully in Chapter 6. But a given graphics primitive does not contain all the information needed to draw a particular graphic. A server resource called a graphics context (GC) contains values for variables that apply to each graphics primitive. The appearance of everything that is drawn by a program is controlled by the GC that is specified with each graphics primitive. (The border and background of a window are not affected or controlled by the GC—they are controlled by window attributes, and are drawn by the server.) What is drawn into a pixmap is also controlled by the GC used in the drawing to the pixmap and, again, possibly with a different GC, if the pixmap is copied into a window. To draw, you must first create a GC and set its values, then specify that GC as an argument in the graphics primitive.

There are two performance-related reasons X was designed to use GCs. First, they ...